The kids are still on their keto/Atkins low-carb diet. These diets are vegetable/protein forward. I am making brisket and a cucumber salad. I had also decided on making a French onion soup, but the question was how could I make it low car. My solution was to give my diners the option of whether their soups would be topped with bread and/or cheese.

Karl’s French Onion Soup III

I set this dish up as a buffet in the kitchen. I asked my diners beforehand about who would want bread. I then let my diners served their own soup, put on the bread or not, and then grate as much of the cheese on top as they liked. While my diners returned to the tables, I popped the individual bowls into the broiler to melt the cheese.

Note: Be sure to note who gets which bowl.

This soup has a history in our family. As the fourth of five girls, my mother Claudia did not learn to cook while she was growing up. When she met my father, the only recipes she knew were how to make French onion soup and how to burn water—put a pot of water on the stove and then focus on something else as it boils away. My father did not so much teach my mother how to cook, but he taught her to learn to how cook. She was freed to explore world cuisines, long before it became popular.

If you have never made this soup before, Serious Eats has a good article on the onions and pots to use based on experimentation. The secret to a good onion soup starts with well caramelized onions. This is not a process on which you can take a short cut—expect to spend two hours just on this one step.

1. Put the butter in a large heavy bottomed pot over medium high heat.

Tip: Serious Eats recommends a cast iron or black steel pot for this dish. They also strongly suggest that enameled pot work very poorly for getting the best caramelized onions.

Note: Serious East also suggest that using whole butter helps the onions to brown more quickly.

2. Sauté the onions with the salt, stirring often, until well caramelized.

Tip: Using more than one type of onion will give you a deeper and more complex flavor.

Note: This process takes a long time—to caramelize without burning the onions takes a good two hours. Stirring the onions and scrapping the fond off of the bottom of the pot, so that it does not scorch. Use water or sherry to deglaze the pot frequently. I also adjusted the heat as the onions cooked down.

Cooking the onions for French Onion Soup5 minutes at high temperature

Cooking the onions for French Onion Soup20 minutes at medium high temperature

Cooking the onions for French Onion Soupafter one hour at medium temperature

Cooking the onions for French Onion Soupafter two hours at low medium temperature

3. Pull the onions to the sides of the pot and add the garlic to the hole in the center.

4. Sauté the garlic for one minute and mix it into the onions.

5. Add the sherry and make sure that the bottom of the pot is completely deglazed.

Tip: Any bits of onion that are stuck to the bottom of the pot might burn, giving your soup a charred taste.

Note: Cook until the pot is almost completely dry to cook off most of the alcohol.

Sounds 😋 delicous and I’ve always wanted to try and make an onion soup this whisk me the perfect recipe. Before I go have you ever attempted making bread bowls and have bowls for the soup at the same time. If so please do tell and share with us readers! Great blog!

The secret to a bread bowl is to use a very thick crusted bread–you need something which will not go soggy by the time you finish your soup. Around here–the Bay Area–they make sour dough loaves in small, medium, and large sizes. Even with the smallest loaf, I personally cannot eat that much bread.